COACH Aleksandar Petrovic is wary about Gilas Pilipinas as his Brazil team plays another Cinderella team in the crossover semifinals of the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament in Riga, Latvia.
The Brazilians are coming off a 77-74 loss to Cameroon, ranked No. 68 in the world, last Thursday. Brazil was able to secure the No. 1 spot in Group A only because of a better points difference.
A day later, the world's No. 12-ranked team will now be up against another underdog team from the Philippines, which is at No. 37 and defeated sixth-ranked Latvia, 89-80, in the group stage to earn its place in the semis.
COLUMN: A big Kai of relief for Gilas Pilipinas
The Brazil-Philippines semifinals is on Saturday, 3:30 p.m. local time (Saturday, 8:30 p.m. Philippine standard time)
Brazil played in last year’s FIBA Basketball World Cup but in Jakarta. It finished 13th but didn’t need to make the trip to Manila for the knockout rounds.
Petrovic said Gilas poses a different challenge compared to other teams they’ve faced including Cameroon.
When asked about it during a postgame press conference, Petrovic said Cameroon plays more of a physical style of play, while the Philippines is more technical.
“If you are not ready to face that physicality which the African teams have, you are in big trouble because they are all over the rim, they press you, and you need to have clean ideas. Cameroon is that kind of team,” said the Croatian coach.
“Philippines is completely different. It’s a highly-technical team with excellent players. Four or five of them play more than 33 minutes. It’s very difficult to compare them. It’s completely different,” said Petrovic.
Brazil is led by former Chicago Bulls player Bruno Caboclo, who is averaging 17.5 points and 6.5 rebounds in the tournament. Yago Santos is also a player to watch with the guard averaging six assists during the group stage.
One thing that Petrovic said that Brazil needs to intensify is its energy, something that was missing in the first half of their game against Cameroon where it trailed at the half, 56-39.
“We are going to play Philippines in 48 hours. We need to forget this game but forget only mentally and prepare ourselves. But we need to be ready to give the message to the players what we need to do if we would like to beat Philippines.
'We need tough defense'
“We need to make effort from the second half (of game vs. Cameroon). They have excellent players who play one-on-one. And first of all, we need tough defense,” said Petrovic, brother of the late NBA great Drazen Petrovic.
At the end of the day, Petrovic said being closer to the goal of reaching the Paris Olympics is enough motivation for the team.
“As everybody else who came to the semifinals of the tournament, we are two games away from our dream. We need to forget who is not anymore with us. We need to find our energy. We need to find a way to beat the Philippines,” said Petrovic.
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